Bowen Wan’s family has filed a lawsuit against ChatGPT’s parent company, claiming the bot told her to taper off her epilepsy medication, which led to her death
The family of a woman who died after she stopped taking her epilepsy medication has filed a lawsuit against an AI company they claim encouraged her to taper off taking the lifesaving drug.
Bowen Wan began messaging ChatGPT in February 2023, finding companionship in the AI bot, The New York Times reports. She was 28 and living in Seattle, far from her native rural Chinese village, Jiangsu. She asked the chatbot for medical advice after her severe epilepsy led to disability leave from her software job at Amazon.
When she was then laid off in November 2025, Wan began searching for a new job so she could maintain her green card — but was concerned that the side effects of her epilepsy medication, lamotrigine, might impact her ability to work. The lawsuit claims ChatGPT advised her to taper off taking the lamotrigine.
They need to update the article on some inaccuracies. Being unemployed is not an issue as a permanent resident (green card). Claiming unemployment benefits however can affect a future citizenship application. She was most likely on an H1B visa which is employment dependent. And that is stressful because you have to leave if you can’t find a new employer willing to sponsor you within 40(?) days.
Not arguing with you or anything, just providing clarification for anyone wondering.
She was just ready to apply for a green card. So yes, her future green card did depend on it.
I don’t really want to go further into semantics over the circumstances of a death, but the article literally says:
…which does not mean “future green card”
Fair enough, I’m going off the top comment that’s based on a more detailed NYT article that provides the detail I mentioned. I’m guessing that’s more accurate since it makes more sense.
She was probably on an H1-B visa, you’re right.